History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c44.92.2

v2.c44.92.2

On the 3rd April, 1832 the *Sarbarāhkār* rebelled against the Rājā and burnt some villages on the great southern road from Calcutta to Nagpur, which passed through Medinipur and Sambalpur. The Company's Government received a report from Mr. Stockwell, Commissioner of Katak, on the 6th April, stating that the latter had summoned both Rājā Jadunāth Bhañja and the *Sarbarāhkār* of Bāmanghāṭi in order to effect a reconciliation between them. Both parties attended on the Commissioner at Balasore, from January to the 11th of March, who decided that Rājā Jadunāth Bhañja had a right to remove the *Sarbarāhkār* or to modify and change the circumstances of his tenure. The second decision of the Commissioner is more important for the history of Feudatory Chiefs in Orissa. Mr. Stockwell states as his second conclusion "that it was a case of internal management and arrangements of that nature with which the Government desired there should be no interference, and that the Sirberakar as vassal must submit to and abide by the orders of his feudal chieftain." It is, therefore, absolutely clear that following the Maratha system of Non-interference with the internal affairs of a feudatory state the British Company's Government even in 1832 did not want to meddle between Rājā Jadunāth Bhañja and his subordinate of Bāmanghāṭi.